


Unboxing Party

by ky old RK stuff (kuroiyousei)



Series: November Quick Fics [4]
Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Canon Setting, Established relationship for main couple(s), Language (general/religious), M/M, POV: Saitou, Queer Saitou, Queer Sano
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-09-28 01:04:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17172905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuroiyousei/pseuds/ky%20old%20RK%20stuff
Summary: Of gifts for Sano that may have cost Saitou more than just money.





	Unboxing Party

Though Saitou generally walked home from work, using the negligible distance between the station and his house as a cooldown period after the business of the day and to orient himself toward what waited at home, today he hired a carriage. The parcels that had been delivered earlier were too numerous and too unwieldy -- individually and in combination -- to carry conveniently on foot. He could have had them delivered to the house instead, but hadn't wanted to spoil the surprise. 

Of course, the more leisure he had to stare at the things undistracted by his usual evening walk, the more opportunity there was for doubts to return. He'd never really been sure of this plan; it had taken him months to concoct it, almost as long to decide he wasn't crazy just for considering it, and another small eternity to act upon it, and he still couldn't be sure _he_ \-- its source of inception, initiation, funding, and presumably follow-through -- believed it a good idea. 

At this point there really did seem little to be done, however; the decision had been made along with the order. There were a few possibilities for backing out, but no pleasant ones, so Saitou might as well just proceed as he'd intended. 

The cab driver would have helped him inside with his burdens -- out of, Saitou believed, actual courtesy more than the desire for a bigger tip -- but the officer, preferring to maintain the privacy of his home as much as possible, declined the offer. It _was_ a bit of a hassle getting all the boxes inside, and Sano was footworking around him like an anticipatory monkey and making almost comparable noises of wild curiosity by the time they were all situated in the bedroom, but eventually Saitou did get the driver paid and dismissed and turned his attention to the evening's real business. 

Sano was crouched next to the largest of the boxes in a position that reminded Saitou of that assumed by children playing chicken-scratch games in the dirt, examining its neat cardboard edges and the foreign logo stamped on its top with great interest. As Saitou reentered the room he commented, "This is some fancy shit! What _are_ these?" 

"They're for you," Saitou replied. "Are your hands clean?" 

Sano's brows rose as he glanced again at all of the parcels, then down at his hands. These didn't look _too_ bad, but Saitou wasn't taking any chances. "Go wash up," he commanded. "This was all too expensive for you to ruin immediately with your lack of hygiene." 

"Hey, I had a bath just yesterday!" This protest was made only as Sano scrambled to his feet, however; it seemed he was too curious about the contents of the boxes to argue much. He went in haste to the basin and, after staring somewhat suspiciously into it -- whether assessing the state of the water or silently resenting the need to wash his hands at all Saitou couldn't be sure -- plunged in halfway up his forearms and splashed around for a few moments. How effective this actually was for purposes of cleanliness Saitou also couldn't be sure, but since Sano's hands hadn't been terrible in the first place, he accepted the young man's presence next to the parcels again after not too long without complaint. 

"All right!" Sano bounced up and down on his knees a little in excitement; he wasn't used to receiving presents. 

"Go ahead." Saitou pushed the biggest of the boxes, the one Sano had been examining closest before, toward him. 

Unnecessarily thoughtless and energetic though he sometimes was, Sano did have the capacity to act like a normal, rational person at times. If Saitou had feared he would damage the packages or their contents in the process of unboxing, his worries were allayed now as Sano undid the fastening strings and lifted the lid with unusual care. A layer of thin, crinkly paper protected the contents, and this too he folded aside with responsible fingers. Then he sat back for a long moment and simply stared. 

Since entering the house, nothing had occurred to ease Saitou's doubts. This had probably been a bad idea from the beginning, and, though he was fully committed to it now, it hadn't really gotten any better. Except that then, as the full implications of the gift seemed to hit Sano all at once, he looked up at Saitou with a sudden smile and enthusiastic energy as bright and hot as a Tokyo summer, and all the officer's issues with this decision were abruptly blown away. 

On occasion -- _far_ oftener than he liked, in fact -- Saitou was required to attend gatherings such as private music recitals, European wine-tastings, lectures with drinks and discussion afterward, _dances_ (for god's sake), and just general-purpose parties held by the rich and influential of Tokyo's upper crust. 

It had started with him grudgingly volunteering to represent the police force at certain official occasions to which they'd been invited to send a delegate -- a task he only undertook because such get-togethers had the potential to provide him with useful information about the precise type of people it was his real job to investigate, and a chore he was fairly sure Uramura silently thanked him on a regular basis for accepting as that meant _he_ didn't have to do it -- but eventually, usefully but to his chagrin, Lieutenant Investigator Fujita Gorou had begun to develop a certain reputation as a man that enjoyed a life somewhat above his own and would snap up any classy invitation that happened to come his way. 

Loathing the entire business -- this impression of himself, the condescending amusement with which many of these nouveau riche treated him as a result, and the necessity of attending these phenomenally dull and overly westernized events in the first place -- Saitou accepted the invitations with squint-eyed gratitude and continued to gather incriminating or suggestive evidence from circumstances observable and gossip overhearable. 

The first time Sano had appealed to Saitou to take him along to one of these parties, Saitou had dismissed it as a joke and thought no more of it. The second time, however, given how vehemently (for him) he'd just been complaining about the musical revue he'd been forced to attend and the offensive insipidity of the group that had gathered for drinks thereafter, he was shocked Sano would repeat such an entreaty, and in such a straightforward tone; so he was forced to take the request more seriously and wonder aloud why on earth his lover should think he wanted to join him in such a dreadful activity. 

Sano had appeared a little embarrassed at the question, but answered readily enough. "Well, you know, I was born dirt-poor... My family lived pretty hand-to-mouth while I was growing up, and I never actually made all that much money in the fighting business... And now I live with you, and _you_ make decent money, and I'm really comfortable here..." 

"... freeloading..." Saitou interjected at a murmur. 

"Yeah," Sano allowed. "Yeah. The point is, I'll never be that person -- that guy who gets all dressed up in fancy clothes and goes to a party full of rich people and drinks expensive wine or whatever. I'll never live that life." 

"And you'd like to see what it would be like to freeload at a higher level," Saitou finished for him. 

Sano's grin was sheepish, but also perhaps a little wistful. "I just think it'd be cool to see what that's like." 

"But you don't need to be that person." It was as close as Saitou could come to telling him, _"I love you exactly as you are."_

Sano had seemed to understand, though; it was remarkable how often he understood the things Saitou couldn't say. His smile had softened, and as he sat up and shifted over to press himself against the older man, he said, "And the life I _do_ live is pretty damn satisfying anyway." After which they were too distracted to discuss anything as boring as the previous topic any more that night. 

The third time Sano had asked, it had been in a more belligerent tone than previously -- "So when are you gonna take me to one of these parties already?" -- and Saitou might well have dismissed it once again, as he had in the first instance, if he hadn't heard Sano's reasoning the last time this had come up and reached the conclusion that Sano was serious in this request. Odd as it seemed, especially when Saitou had made no secret of how much he hated the things, Sano legitimately wanted to attend one. One was probably all it would take to show him just what he wasn't missing, but that one seemed to be important to him. And what was important to Sano was, sometimes very grudgingly, important to Saitou. 

So now Sano opened box after box containing the various pieces of a fine (and expensive) suit of clothing provided by a French designer currently based in Yokohama: shirt and pants, tailcoat, waistcoat, white tie, gloves, a set of silk handkerchiefs with an embroidered 'S' in one corner for versatility, shoes, and an utterly ridiculous piece of headwear called a 'top hat,' all of which would fit in impeccably at one of these hyper-European gatherings he was so interested in suffering through. 

"I don't believe this," he was commenting in supreme glee as he smoothed out the dark grey vest with a huge grin on his face. "Is all this gonna fit me?" 

"It fits me," Saitou replied with half a shrug. They'd long since determined their bodies to be similar enough in shape and size that they could easily wear each other's clothing -- though how this would apply to European garb remained to be seen. 

Sano looked up at him with an enchanted smile. " _You_ went and got fitted for all this?" 

"I thought it might be useful to have a western evening suit around." Saitou didn't bother getting into details of just how uncomfortable it had been dealing with the French couturier. "You can wear it to the party tonight, and then I'll have it if I need it in the future." And he also didn't mention that, although this was perfectly true, he would never even have begun to _consider_ purchasing such a thing if he hadn't wanted it specifically for Sano. 

"Oh, so it's not really 'for me.'" Sano didn't seem at all put off by this information, and continued to grin over their object of discussion with great delight. "It's really just a loan." 

"That's right. Now let's get you into it." 

Sano jumped up with alacrity and began shedding his clothing _almost_ as quickly as he was wont to do under much different circumstances in this room. As he did so he asked, "What are _you_ wearing?" 

"My police uniform, as always." Fujita-kun's reputation, after all, involved a touch of stuffed-shirtedness. 

"All right." Sano held up the trousers he'd pulled fully from their box. "But I wanna see you in this sometime too." 

Saitou smirked, and they got to work. 

At the shop in Yokohama, one aspect of the fitting had been a careful training session on how to wear all these articles. Saitou had wanted to be absolutely certain he could get the things onto Sano and start his festive evening out properly, and just looking at some of them there _had_ been some initial confusion. After that there had been some... well, not _embarrassment_ , exactly, but certainly an enhancement of his discomfort as the French designer and his assistant had obviously discerned without needing to be told that Saitou was ordering these clothes for someone else... and what his relationship with that someone must be. Since the aforementioned two gentlemen seemed to have the same relationship, this had evidently raised him in their opinion... but it had also raised the familiarity with which they treated him, and, given he was half naked much of that time, that had only made things all the more awkward for Saitou. 

Sano would never know what his wolf had gone through for his sake, however, since Saitou didn't plan to mention it. And Sano was _certainly_ in nothing but a good mood now as, with a fair amount of assistance, he donned the pieces in the correct order and manner and made himself into an imitation of a French gentleman of the latest mode. Once his hair was combed out of its chaos and into smoothed-back, shining locks, he was ready for the top hat and a thorough examination from all angles. 

"Well?" he wondered when Saitou had prowled all around him twice, eyeing him from head to toe. 

Saitou did not immediately reply. Sano looked... well, he looked absurdly handsome and desirable... but also... alien. This ensemble that not only partook of a completely different culture but represented, to Saitou, much of what he disliked about modern times... it suited Sano on one level, the most superficial, but not in any more profound way. Saitou would like nothing better, for more than one reason, than to strip it all off of him again. 

At the same time, though, Sano's delight at his finery and the prospect of attending a party in it was almost luminous. Saitou still didn't quite understand this desire, but his own confusion, the awkwardness and discomfort he'd gone through, the amount of money he'd laid out to get to this point -- even the sight of the person he cared about most wearing, essentially, the uniform of many of his enemies -- seemed entirely worthwhile to witness such purity of joy and anticipation in his lover's face and bearing. 

"Very French," he said at last. 

Even Sano's snort in response sounded happy. "Well, when does the party start?" 

"We need to get going. We're going to be fashionably late as it is." 

Sano's eyes widened. "' _Fashionably_ late?' Is that a thing??" 

"Damn," Saitou muttered, and led the way out of the room. 

The rest of the night was certainly going to be interesting. Saitou would introduce Sano to his host simply by name without appending further information, and leave him to his own devices. Then Sano would wander around the place with his thug's saunter intruding on private conversations; demonstrate that he spoke neither French, English, nor German -- nor even particularly good Japanese -- in his loud, uncultured accent; eat all the food, possibly commenting uninformedly on its origin and composition, and drink far too much; start arguments and maybe even pick fights; and thoroughly and unabashedly enjoy every last brutish, ignorant second of it. He was going to _ruin_ this party, and Saitou looked forward to it almost as much as he did.

**Author's Note:**

> This was for HakuSaitoSan's November Quick Fics 2017 prompt "Saito giving in to some unusual want of Sano's."


End file.
